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Disability Living Allowance

Mr. Alan Howarth: To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security how many decisions on an initial award of (a) disability living allowance care component and (b) disability living allowance mobility component were made where the adjudication officer (i) required an examining medical officer's report, (ii) required a general practitioner's factual report, (iii) required other evidence and (iv) relied on the claim pack alone, in (1) 1992-93, (2) 1993-94, (3) 1994-95 and (4) 1995-96. [6723]

Mr. Andrew Mitchell: The information is in the table:

	Claim pack alone(22)	GP's factual report	Examination medical officer's report	Any other evidence	Total
1992-93(23)
Care component	141,838	55,107	47,920	7,165	252,030
Mobility component	157,381	64,092	56,177	8,932	286,582
1993-94(23)
Care component	67,671	48,841	33,141	6,323	155,976
Mobility component	72,190	55,203	38,664	6,729	172,786
1994-95
Care component	67,085	60,841	31,522	9,325	168,773
Mobility component	70,481	68,919	35,793	9,633	184,826
1995-96
Care component	62,770	70,083	41,425	11,430	185,708
Mobility component	62,176	78,331	45,997	11,075	197,579

Source:

Analytical Services Division: 100 per cent.

Notes:

(22) Claims for disability living allowance, care and/or mobility components are decided in the light of all the evidence. The claim pack also invites a claimant to provide supporting statements from someone who knows how their disability affects their every day life e.g. from a doctor or social worker.

(23) Includes top-up awards.

9 Dec 1996 : Column: 65

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Mr. Howarth: To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security how many people during the past year have claimed the disability living allowance mobility component where the adjudication officer considered a claim for the higher rate; in how many cases claims were decided by (a) a general practitioner's factual report and (b) an examining practitioner's report; and how many claims have been refused. [6724]

Mr. Mitchell: The information is not available in the format requested. Such information as is available is in the table.

Awards of higher rate mobility component

GP's factual report	Examining medical practitioner's report	Any other evidence	Total	All refusal
57,499	39,746	51,542	148,787	255,281

Source:

Analytical Services Division: 100 per cent.

Note:

Claims for disability living allowance are considered for the whole benefit rather than for a particular component and rate of award, using all of the evidence.

Mrs. Mahon: To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security how many applications for disability living allowance were received in (a) 1994-95 and 1995-96. [6736]

Mr. Mitchell: The information is in the table.

Claims for disability living allowance

Years	Number (thousands)
1994-95	504
1995-96	511

Source:

Analytical Service Division: 100 per cent. data.

Mr. Howarth: To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security what estimate he has made of the cost of disregarding in full a partner's (a) income and (b) capital, in the calculation of disability working allowance; how many people would benefit; and how many new claimants would be (i) men and (ii) women. [6728]

Mr. Mitchell: None. There is insufficient information on which to base a reliable estimate.

Mr. Howarth: To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security how many (a) men and (b) women receive disability living allowance but have no income maintenance benefit in payment. [6730]

Mr. Mitchell: The information is not available in the format requested. Such information as is available is in the table.

Recipients of disability living allowanceAugust 1996

	Number
All persons	1,768,000
Men	905,000
Women	863,000

Source:

Analytical Services Division: 5 per cent. data.

Note:

Numbers are rounded to the nearest thousand.

9 Dec 1996 : Column: 68

Committees (Membership)

Mr. Alan Howarth: To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security how many members he has appointed to serve on (a) the Social Security Advisory Committee, (b) the Industrial Injuries Advisory Committee and (c) the Council on Tribunals; and how many are (i) woman, (ii) disabled and (iii) of ethnic minority origin. [6726]

Mr. Burt: The information is as follows:

Social security advisory committee

Women	Disabled	Of ethnic minority origin
6	2	2

Total members appointed = 22.

Industrial injuries advisory council

Women	Disabled	Of ethnic minority origin
8	Not available	0

Total members appointed = 24.

Council on tribunals(24)

Women	Disabled	Of ethnic minority origin
1	0	0

Notes:Total members appointed = 10.

Figures are from 9 April 1992 to date.

Source:

(24) Lord Chancellor's Department.

Benefits Agency (Automatic Payments)

Sir Cranley Onslow: To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security what report he has received from the Benefits Agency on the consequences of the failure of its automatic credit transfer system to maintain payment of benefits. [6628]

Mr. Roger Evans: Briefing as events occurred was received by Ministers.

Cold Weather Payments Scheme

Mr. Jim Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security what recent representations he has received regarding the cold weather payments scheme. [7696]

Mr. Roger Evans: Since 4 November, there have been four letters--all from hon. Members.

Mr. Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security what was the cost to his Department of the cold weather payments scheme in each year since it was introduced. [7695]

Mr. Evans: The information is set out in the table:

Year	Expenditure(25) (£000s)
1986-87	10,200
1987-88	500
1988-89	3
1989-90	400
1990-91	8,600
1991-92	23,000
1992-93	15,000
1993-94	12,400
1994-95	77,000
1995-96	62,000
1996-97(26)	148,104

(25) Figures rounded to nearest thousand.

(26) From 4 November 1996.

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Pensions

Mr. Flynn: To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security what estimate he has made of the number of people who opted out of (a) the state earnings-related

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pension scheme and (b) occupational pension schemes in favour of private personal pension schemes and who have made no further contributions to the private schemes since the year in which they opted out. [7494]

Mr. Heald: The available information is in the table.

The table indicates the number of people who had an appropriate personal pension scheme at the end of 1994-95, where the Department has made a minimum contribution payment into the individual's APP in the first year of the scheme, and then made no further payments. The figures are broken down into the previous type of pension scheme.

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Number of people with a minimum contribution in the first year of the APP but none in subsequent years

United Kingdom							Thousands
	Start year of APP
Pension scheme type year before APP start	1987-88	1988-89	1989-90	1990-91	1991-92	1992-93	1993-94
Total	16	7	37	36	30	24	16
SERPS only	13	4	26	27	22	18	12
Occupational pension	1	1	3	2	2	1	1
Mixed: SERPS and occupational pension	--	--	3	2	2	1	2
Other APP	--	--	--	--	--	1	1
Other	2	2	5	5	4	2	2

Source: 1 per cent. sample of national insurance records taken at February 1996.

Notes:

1. -- = Nil or negligible.

2. APP = Appropriate personal pension.

3. Minimum contribution--a proportion of national insurance contributions paid into an APP by the DSS.

4. Qualification for SERPS is defined as having earnings over the lower earnings limit in the year.

5. "Other" will include those receiving NI credits, paying class 2 contributions, class 3 contributions, new entrants (i.e. at 16 years old), and any combinations of categories.

6. Because all figures are rounded to the nearest thousand, the sum of the amounts in the individual columns may not agree with the amount shown against the total.

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Mr. Churchill: To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security if he will list those Organisations for Economic Co-operation and Development countries other than the United Kingdom which place geographical limitations on the payment of fully uprated retirement pensions to citizens who have contributed to a state contributory pension scheme. [8187]

Mr. Heald: On the basis of the information available to the Department, none.

However, other forms of restriction on payment outside national territories are practised by some other OECD countries.

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